Hope College has taught me what it entails to be a successful and productive employee. I enjoyed experiencing how the faculty and staff supported their employees, created a friendly environment, and taught transferable skills. Working for Hope has given me an immense amount of knowledge in event planning, customer service, marketing, coordinating, communications, public relations, and networking.

As a resident assistant, I learned a lot about how to talk with and deal with people my age who may be disgruntled or upset about a certain thing. The hardest part about the job is trying to help other students through hardship. However, the best part of the job is when you help the students out.

A resident assistant at Hope College is required to oversee the dorms and cottages on campus. Duties include programming, working as a team, and building an optimal community for living. The R.A.'s at Hope are required to attend fall training, winter training, and monthly semester training sessions. Training focused on leadership, diversity, community building, programming, teamwork, and health. My first year duties were in a dormitory overseeing 92 men. I worked with four other R.A.'s, but was a part of one of the largest residential life teams in the state of Michigan. My second and third year as an R.A. took place in a cottage of 8 men. The cottage R.A. duties were the same as the dorm duties, but on a smaller scale. I reported to either a Residential Director, or a Neighborhood coordinator all three years. The most difficult part of the job was being a friend to my peers while performing my duties as an R.A. Enforcing policy is part of the R.A. job description, but is not always socially admirable by peers. The most enjoyable aspect of the job was becoming a part of a large team with a common goal. Hope is an amazing place, largely due to the residential life staff that works hard to create a healthy living environment.

A resident assistant at Hope College is required to oversee the dorms and cottages on campus. Duties include programming, working as a team, and building an optimal community for living. The R.A.'s at Hope are required to attend fall training, winter training, and monthly semester training sessions. Training focused on leadership, diversity, community building, programming, teamwork, and health. My first yea duties as an R.A. were in a dormitory overseeing 92 men. I worked with four other R.A.'s, but was a part of one of the largest residential life teams in the state of Michigan. My second and third year as an R.A. took place in a cottage of 8 men. The cottage R.A. duties were the same as the dorm duties, but on a smaller scale.

I got to learn a lot about the world of biology and how to apply my programming knowledge to help solve real world problems in the lab. I also had the opportunity to help contribute to an abstract that wound up being published.

Overall it's a wonderful place to work if you're going to this school. If you're as lucky as I was you'll get your own office with plenty of computing power.

I taught two sessions of one class. The management was very helpful and respected me. I was treated as an equal by all of my co-workers. The hardest part was not being on campus long enough to be able to help the students more. The most enjoyable part was having past students come back and thanking me for preparing them for the real world.

As a TA for the communication Department, I analyzed lesson plan and created student exams to effectively evaluate student performance; graded 500+ exams. I also created 2011-2012 Communication Department Internship handbooks; Interviewed department professors to identify handbook objectives and developed content: Approved by Department Chair and implemented Fall 2011.

As an event planner, I led quarterly social events for Hope College (available to 3200 students); Developed event themes, partnered with Hope student organizations, planned and executed all event details including event promotion, transportation, vendors, catering and budget; Personally responsible for eight events, collaborated on over 30 events.

Did research work and lead a cultural program for Japanese Exchange students. The cultural program ended up having longer hours than I expected, but it was a great program and I did not mind putting in extra time. Research was in subject matter I enjoyed (French Culture) under a professor who managed very well.

Hope College is a friendly environment where everybody nows each other. Because the college only has 3000 students even during busy seasons such as Christmas it is never too chaotic. The hardest part of the job probably was learning to use new equipment that I have never seen before or learning the protocol. Otherwise it is any ideal environment as long as you are not a politically active person.